She pointed to a map on her computer screen. Sara Barron, the nurse who originally reported the elevated levels of anencephaly, wonders if there might be more connection to rural areas. The state is going to continue monitoring pregnancies with anencephaly through next January.īut some people think there’s more that could be done. “It’s really disappointing for us to not be able to say this is what learned and this is what we could do to prevent heartache and tragedy from affecting families,” Wasserman said. Epidemiologist Cathy Wasserman said cluster investigations are notoriously difficult. In the end, after six years, they couldn’t find a single cause. Investigators were unable to 100 percent rule out pesticide exposure.īut after looking at where women worked, how closely they lived to agricultural fields, and what chemicals are used in Washington, investigators were unable to find any single exposure to reduce among all of the women. – Pesticide exposure. This was harder to vet, mainly because there are so many ways to be exposed to pesticides and so many chemical combinations. “It’s been studied for literally decades, and the science still isn’t perfectly understood,” said state epidemiologist Cathy Wasserman. To complicate matters, investigators weren’t able to completely rule out some combination of nitrates in drinking water and nitrosatable drugs. – Nitrates in drinking water. Most all the mothers in the control study and those with neural tube-affected pregnancies - about 80 percent - got their water from public supplies and not well water, where nitrates in drinking water can be high in the Lower Yakima Valley. They found the mothers live in such a wide area that it’s unlikely they can all get water from the Columbia. So the team wondered if the women got their drinking water from the Columbia River. – Radiation from Hanford. Department of Health investigators found accidental releases have decreased over time at the Hanford nuclear weapons complex, and any release would most likely contaminate the soil and water. The investigators ruled out every concern that came to their attention, most prominent: Twelve of those pregnancies were affected by anencephaly.įrom 2010-2017 there have been 45 documented cases of anencephaly in the three counties. Investigators eventually interviewed 17 mothers in the area who had a neural tube-affected pregnancy. They formed an advisory committee to follow-up on what they were discovering. State epidemiologists called in the Centers for Disease Control, studied literature reviews, and held listening sessions in Eastern Washington to get a handle on possible causes. After digging into the birth statistics, epidemiologists found elevated rates of anencephaly cases in Benton, Franklin, and Yakima counties in the Yakima River Basin. (Spina bifida rates are about the same as what’s expected in the area.) Neural tube birth defects happen very early on in pregnancy, likely before women even know they are pregnant.īarron alerted the Washington State Department of Health. They’d also seen an increase in anencephaly cases.Īnencephaly is a type of neural tube birth defect - spina bifida is another on the neural tube spectrum. She talked to other healthcare workers in the area. I saw one case 30 years ago when I was in nursing school one case 12 years ago at another hospital and now I’ve seen two in two months at this little, tiny hospital.” “And I’m thinking right then, ‘This is bad,’” Barron said. In a two month period she said two babies were born with anencephaly. In 2010, she worked at Prosser Memorial Hospital, where she said, they delivered maybe 300 babies per year. Nurse Sara Barron was the first to raise the alarm. And there’s nothing that anyone can explain. Then out of nowhere it’s taken away from you. “You have this hope that you’ll have the baby - you’re going to get to enjoy them. The condition leaves babies who survive to term without their skulls and brains completely formed. It’s striking at an alarming rate - about four times the national average - in three Eastern Washington counties. Maria was born with a rare and fatal birth defect called anencephaly.
The cause of Maria’s birth defect, anencephaly is still unknown. Maria Rosario Perez lived for a few short hours after she was born.